Visit to Cowart Seafood
16 April 2007
The oyster population of the Chesapeake Bay was once able to filter the water of the entire bay in about a week. That was before these tasty mollusks began to drastically decline thanks to sustained over harvesting and the ravages of diseases like Dermo and MSX. Today, according to Better Backyard, a book published by the Environmental Protection Agency, it takes the diminished population of bay oysters a whole year to filter the same volume of water.
Unfortunately, centuries of dredging have also reduced the natural habitat for oysters around the bay, resulting in conditions that make it impossible for oyster populations to come back to their old levels on their own.
In the early part of the twentieth century, Virginia oyster processors harvested millions of bushels of oysters each year (compared to only thousands today), and most of those processors operated from the shores of the Northern Neck. Today, about 90% of oysters processed in Virginia originate outside the Chesapeake Bay region.
The reintroduction of Virginia-grown oysters would tremendously benefit the existing processing infrastructure, transferring millions of dollars in economic activity from out-of-state suppliers back to Virginia. But there’s a hitch: processors rely on oyster larvae produced by hatcheries, which Virginia sorely lacks at the commercial scale needed to revive the industry.
As a result, two of the largest oyster processors on the East Coast (Cowart Seafood Corporation in Lottsburg, and Bevans Oyster Company in Kinsale) have made significant investments, and in the next five years, they expect a production of 50-100 million oysters.
These are the facts behind the Northern Neck’s current number-one economic development initiative: plans to establish an oyster-hatchery program that will greatly benefit the industry—by ending its dependence on out-of-state oyster larvae.
To learn about the technology behind this initiative, on April 16, 2007, attendees of the joint quarterly meeting of the Northern Neck Planning District Commission and the Northern Neck-Chesapeake Bay Region Partnership toured the facilities at Cowart Seafood Corporation, near Lottsburg.
The central element of an oyster hatchery is the nursery, whose role is not only the production of seed larvae but also the conditioning of the oysters to become constant feeders, resulting in faster growth. Normally, oysters only feed when the tide is running (coming in or going out). That’s why the design of modern, manmade nurseries incorporates what’s called a “floating upweller system” (a.k.a. FLUPSY), which creates an artificial tide—by means of a paddlewheel—that moves nutrient-rich water through the system at a constant rate, year-round.
After six months of constant feeding in the FLUPSY, the juvenile oysters are ready for faster growth at their next step of development (i.e. suspended in mid-water cages), making it possible to have market-ready oysters at a much faster rate than with conventional growth methods.
During the tour, A. J. Erskine, the aquaculture manager for Cowart Seafood Corporation and for Bevans Oyster Company, stated that oysters like to be near other oysters of similar size, so the bivalves are regularly separated with a mechanical sorter that helps them reach that goal. It is just one of the many features of oyster aquaculture aimed at making it easy for this Chesapeake Bay mollusk to really come back.
The overseer of the Northern Neck Oyster Hatchery initiative is the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) at the College of William and Mary. A. J. Erskine and Thomas J. Murray, a Marine Business Specialist at VIMS, submitted a feasibility study proposal to the Northern Neck Planning District Commission in March of 2007. The proposal states that “the construction of a commercial-scale oyster hatchery in the Northern Neck would require extensive planning by qualified architects, engineers, and have [a] proper site evaluation conducted,” and they estimated a cost of between $120 and $125 thousand dollars for this planning stage of the project.
The Northern Neck Planning District Commission has applied with the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration for a $60,000 grant to cover part of these planning costs. The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Northern Neck-Chesapeake Bay Region Partnership, will provide matching funds. Once in full operation, the oyster-hatchery initiative is estimated to create between 200 and 250 long-term jobs in the Northern Neck region.
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About the Program: Studies have shown that three out of four new jobs are usually created by existing local businesses. For that reason, the Northern Neck Business Visitation Program was launched in 2006 to assist established local firms with their growth efforts, expansion plans, workforce-training needs, and general day-to-day operations.
